Nicole M. Strumbel
COG 4900: Cognitive Science Seminar
Dr. Robert Schroer
February 15th, 2023
Introduction
The study of the mind has gone through many different theories. A popular, withstanding study of psychology and cognition is behaviorism. Behaviorism is a theory and method of studying psychology by defining behavior through conditioning. John B. Watson first developed this theory in 1913 to get away from theories of mental life and introspection (Moore, 2011). Watson, later supported by Pavlov, established the existence of classical conditioning, where an animal, human or non-human, will associate an unconditioned stimulus with an unconditioned response. Interestingly, by pairing the unconditioned stimulus with a new, conditioned stimulus simultaneously, the new stimulus will start to elicit the original response, creating a conditioned response (Eelen, 2018).
In 1937, B.F. Skinner created a new term, operant conditioning, establishing that conditioning can encourage or discourage behavior through reinforcement and punishment (Staddon & Cerutti, 2003). The terms that are commonly used in operant conditioning include the following. Positive, to add something. Negative, to remove something. Reinforcement to increase behavior. Punishment to decrease behavior. This creates the table’s four segments: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, and Negative Punishment. To briefly explain all of these terms, let us cover negative punishment. Negative punishment means that some form of object or stimulus is taken away to decrease an unwanted behavior. This practice of conditioning is common in human parenting. If a child misbehaves in school, the parent takes their phone away to punish the misbehavior. The practice of conditioning a friend, family member, or pet is relatively simple and can be quite an enjoyable experience.
Conditioning in Animals
Conditioning in animals is commonly found in laboratory experiments. Popular studies include Pavlov’s dogs which demonstrated classical conditioning, and Skinner’s birds which demonstrated operant conditioning. However, there is a possibility of seeing animals in the wild become naturally conditioned to survive. A good example would be the Raccoon. There have been no distinct studies that have documented a raccoon being conditioned. However, it is easy to speculate that a Raccoon did not inherently know it could raid a trash can for food. The raccoon’s normal behavior is to eat an omnivorous diet. They typically will eat fruit and berries, even rabbits and bird eggs. When desperate for food, we can assume that a raccoon stumbled upon food spilled outside a trash can. Over time, when the raccoon is hungry, it can choose between searching for food in the wild or wandering over to the nearest garbage can and finding food.
To break it down as a behaviorist, the raccoon experiences a positive reinforcement cycle. The raccoon is hungry and begins hunting for food in the wild. The reward is satiating its hunger when discovering a bird’s nest with eggs. The new behavior is crawling into the garbage can, and the reward is easy access to food inside the garbage can. Over time, the raccoon will begin hunting for food in the garbage can because the reward is greater than the time spent hunting for food in the wild.
Another example of positive reinforcement can be seen in giant land tortoises. Galapagos and Seychelle tortoises have demonstrated the capability of being conditioned to perform operant tasks in group settings (Gutnick, 2019). The tortoises were trained to complete color discrimination tasks, and certain foods were used as positive reinforcements. Over time, the tortoises successfully performed the behaviors that the experiments were looking for. Fascinatingly, the tortoises retained the operant conditioning they received nine years after training.
Let us again analyze this study through the eyes of a behaviorist. The experimenter wanted to see if the tortoises could perform a color discrimination task. To test, they used something called Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT). This is a form of operant conditioning that is used to encourage behavior through the use of a reward. In this experiment, the reward was food that the experimenters pulled from the tortoises’ regular feedings, turning them into something rewarding to the tortoise. The behavior that they wanted the tortoise to perform was a color discrimination task. By using PRT, the experimenters were capable of conditioning the tortoise to complete the task and continue to do so nine years later.
The Criticisms of Behaviorism
The most prominent criticism of behaviorism is its ignorance of the existence of internal processes and the mind. This is called the Black Box. The black box believes that the only explanation for behavior is a series of inputs and outputs. It ignores the concept of memorization, implying that there is an incapability of understanding what they are doing. It also ignores any explanation for why a desired behavior does not occur. Ignoring these two important concepts suggests that animals are incapable of experiencing any form of cognitive processing.
I would have to agree with these criticisms. Ignoring what goes on inside the mind forgoes any capability of understanding why input-output behavior occurs. While noticing that it occurs is not bad and should continue to be studied, actively avoiding understanding what occurs in the brain feels ignorant. Why not study input-output behavior while including hypothesis and testing to understand why it occurs? If you understand the mental processes, it may open the door to the possibility of higher-level cognitive processes.
Conclusion
While criticisms of behaviorism exist, it is still an interesting theory to consider when studying animal cognition, and it allows us to understand basic learning functions. While ignoring what goes on inside the mind is not the best method of practice, seeing what species can experience the two forms of conditioning allows a basic understanding of which species are capable of learning. What I hope to see is more research that not only studies the inputs and outputs that behaviorism studies but adventures into the black box and combines the study of the mind and the study of behavior.
References
Eelen, P. (2018). Classical conditioning: Classical yet modern. Psychologica Belgica, 58(1), 196–211. https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.451
Giannelli, M. A. (1986). Three blind mice, see how they run: A Critique of behavioral research with animals. Advances in Animal Welfare Science 1985, 109–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4247-9_8
Gutnick, T., Weissenbacher, A., & Kuba, M. J. (2019). The underestimated giants: Operant Conditioning, visual discrimination and long-term memory in giant tortoises. Animal Cognition, 23(1), 159–167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-019-01326-6
Moore, J. (2011). Behaviorism. The Psychological Record, 61(3), 449–463.
Staddon, J. E., & Cerutti, D. T. (2003). Operant conditioning. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(1), 115–144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124